James F. WhiteA Brief History of Christian Worship

I am currently using this book to learn more about the history of Christianity and the meaning of worship, tho as I am beginning my learning in the Bible.

To give an overview of 2,000 years of such a monumental topic of history, philosophy, and religion is no easy task. White, as always, is focused, well researched and provides excellent sources.Anyone involved in the study of Christian worship should start here.

I feel like you have to either be Catholic or have some understanding and or interest in/of the catholic tradition, to get a good read out of this book. It simply is not holding my interest, therefore I am fighting to grasp some understanding in order to do well in my class. We are in chapter IV and I am still struggling with this text. I am not a bad student! The book just has not been an effective read for me. I see all the great comments, so I feel a little out of place writing this, but it's my experience with the book. I purchased it by kindle initially but the page numbers were not in order, so I had to purchase the paperback book. It is a required text for my class on Christian Worship. For the most part I think my disinterest is mostly due to the fact that I just have no interest in the catholic tradition as a practice; and this book is filled with catholic terms and references so far; perhaps if you practice the catholic tradition you may have a much better experience.

White does an excellent job tracking several spiritual themes through the various Christian epochs. He compares things as what was the process of becomming a Christian and other themes that most consider timeless, but instead shows the changing in what was considered normative from the early church, patristic period, medieval ages, enlightenment period and modern Christianity. I have read many many books on worship, and this one is definately worth reading and White's analysis is honest, reasonable and very informative.

This book really does fill a void in the market. Most books on the history of Christian worship are excessively simple or excessively complex. Occasionally an educated lay person will ask me for a book that they can understand (without a divinity degree) but that goes beyond the simple "altar guild" books one might use as an absolute introduction. I am very pleased that Professor White is able to maintain the middle ground.

I ordered it for college, and it turned out to be a wonderful read. Very interesting views for personal and scholarly studies.

This book is so packed with information that I felt lost along the way. There was little synthesis at the end of sections so I felt there was limited big-picture significance.

This is an excellent book for those interested in the whys behind some of our Christian what's, but who are not able to spend time delving into Church History books.

I bought the Kindle edition of this book and am pretty pleased with its content. It's packed with all kinds of information about Christian worship and the changes it has undergone as it has evolved with culture and theological understanding. Highly recommend for anyone in a leadership position at a church.

I have this book as a text book from my University course on Worship. It will be a reference book for me and others as it is very interesting and informative.

This is exactly as its title proclaims and is a very good introduction to Christian liturgy. Enough to enlighten the curious or perplexed, or to whet the appetite of the more serious enquirer. Easy to reference specific aspects of worship and as comprehensive as any work of this length on so large a subject can be.

Excellent overview of the development of Christian Liturgy, in sufficient detail to understand the major developments. It is well organised so also easy to dip in and read about one specific area (such as Christian initiation) across the various timeframes used in the book. Recommend as a study book or for someone just interested in the development of worship.